Apple Mac Pro Quad Xeon with Win XP - anyone tried this?
 

i would be interested in the speed of the system. looks like decent hardware for that price, but some programs i need - like Cleaner XL - do not run on mac os

I have not tried that, but I have a quadcore pc and it is the shit. I installed XP in 6 minutes.

MaDalton, I still use Cleaner XL as my main Windows encoding app, previously with standard def digital video and now with hi-def footage from my Sony FX-1. I find that even with my Dell 9300 dual core Win XP pc that encoding wmv files from my hi-def footage edited with Premiere Pro and the (Cineform codec) AVIs takes a LONG time. Especially if I am adding a .png watermark to the files as they are output, usually in multiple bitrates. It took almost twelve hours to turn a 35 minute edited Cineform AVI video into a full size (1440 x 1080 pixel frame) wmv with watermark at a 4300 Kb bitrate.

Cleanner XL is a powerful but clunky program, but I think I have learned to get the most out of it. I'd be happy to compare experiences with Cleaner XL if you like.

yeah, but it's the old 6.5 version that was on Windows replaced by Cleaner XL 1.5 already 2 years ago. they're not really busy doing new versions, but i haven't found a better program yet (and i tried a lot)

wow - that's a long time...

i'm currently running a batch job (since 4 or 5 days now) doing WMVs at 1800 kbit/s with a png watermark with MPEG files at 8000 kbit/s as source files - and it takes about 30-45 minutes for a 10-15 min. clip (inlcuding some filters like contrast and saturation)

on an AMD 64 X2 4400 system with 4 gb ram.

not too bad - i think - but i would happily spend some money to speed that up a little bit.

i'm just interested if the Mac - running in dual boot with Win XP - is still that friggin fast like it is with Mac OSX

MaDalton, same for me, I haven't found anything better for encoding yet. I haven't even upgraded to Cleaner XL 1.5 yet, mine is just Cleaner XL for Windows from a few years ago. Discreet is hardly supporting the app anyway other than that 1.5 version that they quietly released a while ago. But it does the trick for batching to multiple formats (wmv, quicktime, and real, or mpeg-1) and bitrates and adding those watermarks at the encoding process.

There is a Windows app named Procoder(ver. 2.0 I think) that I have read some reviews of. I haven't tried it but I wonder if it is any faster for encoding on my same dual core pc.

Final Cut Pro comes with Compressor, which is a pretty damn good video encoder.

i have a MacPro w/ dual 2.66GHz xeons and 8GB FB memory, installed the Radeon X1600 into it myself after buying the machine at an apple store at launch. i dual boot it from OSX into WinXP all the time using Boot Camp and it works fine, fastest X86 machine i have ever owned. buy one, they rock..

i have tried Procoder - it made me nearly cry. i was 10 sec. away from disintegrating my PC with a big axe :1orglaugh

don't buy it - never

Cleaner XL doesnt use SMP on any of the QT generated formats. Procoder is where its at.

That's how I felt when I first got Cleaner XL, but I am used to it's clunky interface now.

I drink chocolate milk at night with a straw.

yeah it is :thumbsup :thumbsup

does it do batch jobs and wmv encoding?